Chael Sonnen discusses a potential Beneil Dariush vs Dustin Poirier fight for UFC 284
Chael Sonnen recently gave his thoughts on the possibility of a Beneil Dariush vs. Dustin Poirier matchup in the UFC. While assessing the lightweight division, he noted that a bout's placement in an event could be a deciding factor.
Sonnen uploaded a video to his YouTube channel, where he gave his thoughts on the idea that Dariush-Poirier isn't going to be as intriguing as time goes on. He then raised a question for his viewers:
"It's never gonna get any hotter. This is never gonna boil. If you're dealing with Benny [Dariush], you're dealing with Dustin. You're dealing with a straight competition and that's awesome, and it's rare. But now we have a job to do. So if you were to do that job of those two matches [Dariush vs. Poirier and Gilbert Burns vs. Jorge Masvidal] talk to me about it. Tell me a little about what you do."
'The American Gangster' weighed in on the possibility that Dariush vs. Poirier could be realistic for UFC 284, which takes place in Perth, Australia. The reasoning he gave was because Khabib Nurmagomedov suggested the bout for the event:
"The reason Khabib wanted placed here is so we could use those two athletes should the main event fall apart. We could grab from one of them slide them up. That was Khabib's number-one motivation, not just the competition and not just seeing it, not just to establish a number-one contender. His number-one thought was lets get 'em ready, lets get 'em in shape, lets get 'em in the right location."
Based on the rankings, this ensures that the winner of the main event will know who their next opponent is and the promotion will have an easy time booking the bout. Additionally, former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is expected to take time off, which means he won't be available to fight Dariush at UFC 284 either.
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Dustin Poirier isn't interested in fighting Beneil Dariush
Dariush vs. Dustin Poirier is the most logical non-title bout to book in the UFC's lightweight division.
'The Diamond' was a recent guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and discussed the possibility of fighting Beneil Dariush next. Despite the bout making sense as far as the rankings are concerned, he mentioned that he's not interested at the moment:
"No disrespect to Beneil, great fighter. He's very respectful, hard worker, goes in there and handles business but when we just talked about the other names that I fought recently, that one's not super exciting when I think about it."
Dustin Poirier isn't doesn't seem too interested in a clash with Beneil Dariush. Who should Poirier fight next if not Beneil? 🤔
Source, MMA Hour: youtube.com/watch?v=HoCiak… https://t.co/EEGFxj2uFw
'The Diamond,' who is the No.2-ranked lightweight, most recently submitted Michael Chandler in a back-and-forth bout that earned both men a Fight of the Night bonus. Meanwhile, Dariush is currently on an 8 fight winnning streak, which includes wins against Drew Dober, Tony Ferguson, and most recently Mateusz Gamrot.
It will be interesting to see whether UFC President Dana White will add title implications for the winner as a way to entice 'The Diamond', or if they'll pursue other matchups.